Beginning

Love and Obey with All Your Heart

11 “Therefore you are to love Adonai your God and keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances and His mitzvot at all times. ² And you should know this day that it was not your children who knew or saw the discipline of Adonai your God—His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm; ³ His signs and the deeds He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to all his land; ⁴ and what He did to the army of Egypt, to its horses and chariots when He made the waters of the Sea of Reeds flow over them as they chased after you, and how Adonai has destroyed them to this day; ⁵ what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and what He did to Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab son of Reuben—how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households and tents and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel— ⁷ Rather, it is your own eyes that have seen every mighty deed that Adonai has done.

⁸ “Therefore you are to keep the whole mitzvah that I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land that you are crossing over to possess, ⁹ and so that you may prolong your days on the land that Adonai swore to give to your fathers and to their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰ “For the land you are going in to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you came. There you planted your seed and watered it by foot, like a vegetable garden. ¹¹ But the land you are crossing over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, drinking from the rain of the heavens it drinks in water. ¹² It is a land that Adonai your God cares for—the eyes of Adonai your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year up to the end of the year.

¹³ “Now if you listen obediently to My mitzvot that I am commanding you today—to love Adonai your God and to serve Him with all your heart and soul— ¹⁴ then I will give rain for your land in its season—the early rain and the late rain^[a]—so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. ¹⁵ I will give grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied. ¹⁶ Watch yourselves, so your heart is not deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. ¹⁷ Then the anger of Adonai will be kindled against you, so He will shut up the sky so that there will be no rain and the soil will not yield its produce. Then you will perish quickly from the good land Adonai is giving you.

¹⁸ “Therefore you are to set these words of Mine in your heart and in your soul. You are to bind them as a sign on your hand, and as frontlets between your eyes. ¹⁹ You are to teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. ²⁰ You are to write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied on the land Adonai swore to give to your fathers, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

²² “For if you will diligently keep all this mitzvah that I am commanding you to do—to love Adonai your God, to walk in all His ways and to cling to Him— ²³ then Adonai will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. ²⁴ Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours—from the wilderness to the Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea will be your border. ²⁵ No one will be able to stand against you—Adonai your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has promised you.

Parashat Re’eh

Blessing or Curse Set Before You

²⁶ “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— ²⁷ the blessing, if you listen to the mitzvot of Adonai your God that I am commanding you today, ²⁸ but the curse, if you do not listen to the mitzvot of Adonai your God, but turn from the way I am commanding you today, to go after other gods you have not known. ²⁹ Now when Adonai your God brings you into the land you are going in to possess, you are to set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ Are they not across the Jordan toward the west, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah—opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? ³¹ For you are about to cross over the Jordan to go in to possess the land Adonai your God is giving you—you will possess it and dwell in it, ³² and you will take care to do all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.

The Place He Chooses

12 “These are the statutes and ordinances that you are to make sure to do in the land that Adonai, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess—all the days that you live on the earth. ² You must utterly destroy all the places where the nations that you will dispossess served their gods—on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³ You are to tear down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their Asherah poles in the fire and cut down the carved images of their gods, and you are to obliterate their name from that place.

⁴ “You are not to act like this toward Adonai your God. ⁵ Rather you are to seek only the place Adonai your God chooses from all your tribes to put His Name to dwell—there you will come. ⁶ There you are to bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes, the offering of your hand, your vow and freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷ There you and your households will eat before Adonai your God and rejoice in every undertaking of your hand, as Adonai your God has blessed you. ⁸ You will not do all the things as we are doing here today—everyone doing what is right in his own eyes. ⁹ For you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance that Adonai your God is giving you. ¹⁰ But when you cross over the Jordan and settle in the land that Adonai your God enables you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you, you will dwell in safety.

¹¹ “Then the place Adonai your God chooses to make His Name dwell, there you are to bring all that I command you—your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes, the offering of your hand, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to Adonai. ¹² Then you will rejoice before Adonai your God—you and your sons and daughters, your slaves and maids, and the Levite in your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance among you. ¹³ Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in any place you see. ¹⁴ Rather do so only in the place Adonai chooses in one of your tribes—there you are to offer your burnt offerings, and there you are to do all I am commanding you.

¹⁵ “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates—whatever your soul’s desire, according to the blessing Adonai your God has given you. Either the unclean or clean may eat of it, as they would a gazelle and or deer. ¹⁶ But you are not to eat the blood—you are to pour it out on the ground like water. ¹⁷ You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings, or the offering of your hand. ¹⁸ Rather you are to eat them before Adonai your God in the place Adonai your God chooses—you, your son and daughter, your slave and maid, and the Levite within your gates—and you will rejoice before Adonai your God in every undertaking of your hand. ¹⁹ Be careful that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live on the earth.

²⁰ “When Adonai your God enlarges your territory as He has promised you, and you say, ‘I want to eat meat,’ because your soul craves meat, then you may eat meat—all your soul’s desire. ²¹ If the place Adonai your God chooses to put His Name is too far from you, then you may slaughter any of your herd and flock that Adonai has given you—as I have commanded you—and you may eat within your gates, all your soul’s desire. ²² Just as the gazelle or hart is eaten, so you may eat it—the unclean and clean alike may eat it. ²³ Only be sure that you do not eat the blood—for the blood is the life,^[b] and you are not to eat the life with the meat. ²⁴ You are not to eat it—you are to pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵ You are not to eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in Adonai’s eyes.

²⁶ “Only the holy things and vow offerings that are yours are you to take and go to the place that Adonai chooses. ²⁷ You are to offer your burnt offerings—the flesh and the blood—on the altar of Adonai your God. The blood of your sacrifices is to be poured out on the altar of Adonai your God, but the meat you are to eat. ²⁸ Take care and listen to all these words that I am commanding you, so that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the eyes of Adonai your God.

²⁹ “When Adonai your God cuts off before you the nations that you are going in to dispossess, when you have dispossessed them and settled in their land, ³⁰ be careful not to be trapped into imitating them after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.’ ³¹ You are not to act like this toward Adonai your God! For every abomination of Adonai, which He hates, they have done to their gods—they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

Beware of False Prophets

13 “Whatever I command you, you must take care to do—you are not to add to it or take away from it.^[c]

² “Suppose a prophet or a dreamer of dreams rises up among you and gives you a sign or wonder, ³ and the sign or wonder he spoke to you comes true, while saying, ‘Let’s follow other gods’—that you have not known, and—‘Let’s serve them!’ ^{[d] 4} You must not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams—for Adonai your God is testing you, to find out whether you love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁵ Adonai your God you will follow and Him you will fear. His mitzvot you will keep, to His voice you will listen, Him you will serve and to Him you will cling. ⁶ That prophet or dreamer of dreams must be put to death! For he has spoken falsehood against Adonai your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to entice you from the way Adonai your God commanded you to walk. So you will purge the evil from your midst.^[e]

⁷ “Suppose your brother—your mother’s son—or your son or daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your best friend of your own soul misleads you secretly, saying, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods’—that you and your fathers have not known, ⁸ from among the gods of the peoples around you, near you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other. ⁹ You are not to give in or listen to him, your eye is not to pity him, and you are not to spare or conceal him. ¹⁰ Instead, you will surely put him to death. Your hand should be the first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. ¹¹ You are to stone him with stones to death because he tried to entice you away from Adonai your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. ¹² Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and never again will they do such an evil thing as this in your midst.

¹³ “Suppose you hear it said in one of your cities, which Adonai your God is giving you to dwell in, ¹⁴ that worthless fellows^[f] have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods’—that you have not known. ¹⁵ Then you are to investigate, search out and inquire thoroughly. If indeed it is true and the matter certain that this abomination has been done in your midst, ¹⁶ you will surely strike down the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its livestock with the sword. ¹⁷ You are to gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and you are to burn with fire the city and all its plunder—all of it to Adonai your God. It will be a ruin forever—it shall never be built again. ¹⁸ Nothing from the ban should cling to your hand, so that Adonai may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, and have compassion on you and multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers— ¹⁹ when you listen to the voice of Adonai your God, keeping all His mitzvot that I am commanding you today, doing what is right in the eyes of Adonai your God.